The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson

Browse > Literature > Features > CWBJ > Introduction

		Introduction
		Detailed project description
		Members of the project
		List of Jonson's works

Introduction

THE CAMBRIDGE EDITION OF THE WORKS OF BEN JONSON offers a complete re-editing of the entire Jonsonian canon, and aims to supersede the monumental Oxford Ben Jonson of C. H. Herford and Percy and Evelyn Simpson published between 1925 and 1952. The Cambridge Ben Jonson takes account of recently discovered works by Jonson, and offers the first complete edition of Jonson in electronic form. In addition, the Cambridge Ben Jonson is shaped by new research on the ordering and arrangement of the canon, and its editorial policy reflects revisionary thinking on Jonsonian copy-texts. Thus, the Cambridge Ben Jonson gives a clear sense, afforded by no other modern edition, of the shape, scale, and variety of the Jonsonian canon.

The Cambridge Ben Jonson will appear initially in two related formats. A six-volume print edition will present a modernized text of the complete works - prose, verse and drama - in chronological order, with annotation at the foot of the page and full scholarly apparatus. The print edition will also include introductions to Jonson's life and times, theatrical context, masques, printed texts, and critical reputation. The electronic edition, to be published simultaneously as a CD-ROM or via the Internet, will feature the entire contents of the print edition along with a range of early manuscripts and print texts - including the early quartos, 1616 and 1640/1 folios and 1640 duodecimo. The electronic edition will enable to search the entire canon for the first time, in original or modernised spelling. Additional archival material (including life records, stage history, masque records, and early allusions) will also be incorporated and fully searchable, together with a comprehensive Jonson bibliography. Importantly, the electronic original-spelling edition will be hypertextually cross-referenced with the modernized edition, allowing readers to make textual comparisons at the click of a button.

A team of over thirty eminent scholars join the General Editors in this endeavour. Cambridge University Press will publish their work in both the print and electronic editions in 2005.

If you would like to know more about The Cambridge Edition of the Works of Ben Jonson, please see our Detailed Description of the project.